Marine biology

Marine biology is the study of animal and plant life within waterbound ecosystems. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology deals with those species in which life is spent only (or mainly) in the water, thus its classification is based on the environment rather than on taxonomy.

Reefs

Reefs comprise some of the densest bio habitats in the world as far as number of species within a given area. They can be incredibly diverse. Even cold water reefs. Tropical reefs are known best though, and exist in most tropical waters.

Related Topics:
Reef - Tropical

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Reefs are built up by coral and other calcined deposits, usually on top of a rocky outcrop on the ocean floor. Reefs can evolve on other things too though, which has given rise to the human ability to create artificial reefs.

Related Topics:
Coral - Calcined - Artificial reef

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Currently much attention in marine biology is focused on coral reefs and the El Niño weather phenomenon. In the 1998 coral reefs experienced a "once in a thousand years" bleaching event, which killed off vast expanses of reefs across the globe, due to sea surface temperatures rising well above normal. Some reefs are recovering, but scientists say that 58% of the world's coral reefs are now endangered and predict that global warming could exacerbate this trend.

Related Topics:
El Niño - 1998 - Global warming

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